


The Start of Something

by CalinKeane



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Act Six (Homestuck), Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Meteorstuck, Nightmares, One Shot, they're both gay and repressed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-25
Updated: 2019-06-25
Packaged: 2020-05-19 08:36:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,535
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19353355
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CalinKeane/pseuds/CalinKeane
Summary: Movie night is going fine until Karkat has a nightmare





	The Start of Something

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first Homestuck fic and the first one-shot I've ever published! Feedback is always appreciated :)
> 
> Feel free to follow me on tumblr @calinkeane if you want to send in any requests or just to send a message!

Your name is KARKAT VANTAS and Dave is taking entirely too long to join you on the couch.

“What the FUCK is taking so long Strider?”

“Hey man, chillax.  I’m getting snacks for movie night” he calls back from the adjoining room.

“It doesn’t take this long!  Jegus, I could have been halfway through the movie by now if I had just started it when we were supposed to!”

“Perfection takes time” he says simply.  Not long after, Dave emerges from the makeshift kitchen with a massive bowl of popcorn cradled in one arm and a variety of soda cans in the other.

“Seriously?!” you yell.  “It took you that long to make microwave popcorn and grab the first few shitty soda cans you saw from the fridge?”

“Dude, relax.  I was in there for like, ten minutes max.  Besides” he says, sidling onto the couch next to you.  “This isn’t microwave popcorn, it’s fancy kernel popcorn with real butter and shit.”

You wonder where he got his hands on all of that, considering that everyone is currently located in Buttfuck Nowhere with no way to access most Earth stuff, but you push the thought aside when you realize that the popcorn smells absolutely heavenly.  Dave looks at you expectantly, so you begrudgingly grab a handful from the bowl and shove it your mouth.

Oh.  Shit.  That’s really good.  He notices your surprise because he gets a smug grin on his dumb face.

“Whatever, it doesn’t warrant ten minutes” you growl.  “Can we start the fucking movie now?”

“Ready when you are.”  You roll your eyes, because if that were the case the movie would have been started already.  “What’s this one called?”

“This one is ‘In Which A Team Of Wildly Underqualified Trolls Are Sent On A Mission To Spy On A High Profile Purple-Blood By Infiltrating Her Ranks Of Underlings With The Ultimate Purpose Being To Overthrow Her From Within; During The Time, One Fudge-Blooded Underling Develops Pale Feelings For An Olive-Blooded Spy And-’”

“Okay wait” Dave interrupted.  “I forgot that troll movie titles give away literally the entire plot.  Let’s just play the movie and let me be surprised.”

You sigh at this, never having understood the ridiculously ambiguous titles of human movies.  “You’re ruining your experience, but fine. I’m sick of waiting and this is one of my favorites.”  With that, you lean over to your husktop and finally start to play the movie.

Dave seemed to take a liking to the movie pretty quickly despite not understanding the subtle nuances of troll culture.  Still, this was more enjoyable than most of your movie nights where Dave couldn’t shut the fuck up because he didn’t get something, subsequently missing out on plot while you had to explain it to him, resulting in him missing more important events during your explanation.  In any case, you actually were enjoying tonight. That is, until you start drifting off to sleep during the best parts of the movie.

Dave’s laughter is what wakes you up the first time, and you realize that you’ve been asleep for about ten minutes.  Whatever, you’ve seen this movie a thousand times before so it’s not like you don’t know what’s going on, but you came down here to watch movies so you gogdamn will.  You think you’ve held true to that statement until you’re startled awake when you start to fall forward, making yourself look like an absolute moron.

“Dude” Dave says.  You can’t tell what he’s thinking because of those stupid shades, but it’s probably along the lines of “look at this douche, he can’t even stay awake long enough to watch a movie, how does this asshole get anything done when he keeps passing out like some fucking wriggler?”.  

“What do you want, Strider?” you ask, poorly concealing the tiredness in your voice.

“Just go to sleep man.  You’ve seen this before, haven’t you?”

You let out a feeble “yeah” while nodding your head.  Wow, you really are pathetic when you’re tired.

“Then go to sleep.  I’m gonna keep watching the movie if that’s cool, I really like this one.”

“Since when are you so concerned about people getting sleep?” you question him.  “You’re a fucking hypocrite you know that? I don’t know how many times I’ve seen you go days without sleeping so you can dick around like a simpleton.”

Dave just shrugged nonchalantly, which was just infuriating at this point.  Even more infuriating is the fact that he was right: you are really tired, and you might as well go to sleep.

“You know what?  Just to shut you up, I will go to sleep, but I’m not moving from here!” you growl, shambling to the corner of the couch.

“Alright dude, have fun” Dave says.  It’s the last thing you hear as you curl in on yourself, getting as comfortable as you can on this shitty couch before drifting off to sleep.

* * *

 

Your name is DAVE STRIDER, and you have been watching this movie for an obscene amount of time.

That’s not to say it isn’t good; you’ve enjoyed this one the most because it reminds you of some movies you saw on Earth, but these troll movies are so much longer than you’re used to.  You think it’s because there’s a lot more involved in troll culture and romance, but you still don’t get some things no matter how Karkat explains it. Oh well, he doesn’t get some things about human culture either, so both of you just agree to be absolutely confused by each other’s worlds.

Speaking of Karkat, you glance over to where he’s still sleeping, curled up and leaning on the edge of the couch.  You look away quickly because that’s really fucking weird of you to be watching him sleep, but you can’t ignore the fact that this is the first time you’ve seen him as anything but grouchy.

You turn your attention back to the movie, which you think is about to end.  Yep, that purple-blood was killed by one of her most loyal blue-bloods in a shocking turn of events, and now they had her head on a stake that they displayed in the city center.  As compelling as these movies are, you really aren’t used to the uncensored gore, and you’re pretty sure they actually had to kill a purple-blood to make this movie because there’s no way that those were just special effects.

With the movie finally finished, you close the tab on the husktop and look at the time, seeing that the movie took three hours to finish.  Well, the night is still young, and you don’t feel like you’re going to sleep any time soon, so you do some digging to pull up some shitty Earth movies just to pass the time until people start to wake up.

A little while into the first movie Karkat stirs, groaning in his sleep and stretching out on the couch.  You don’t really pay attention to it since it’s no big deal, you just keep watching the movie. Then he moves again, and then he whimpers, and then he’s making this face like he’s scared of something.  You realize “Oh shit, Karkat is having a nightmare” and you have no idea what to do. Aren’t you not supposed to wake people up if they’re having a nightmare? No, that’s sleepwalking, you’re just a moron.

Karkat gets more restless and starts to cry out, and all you can do is look at him like a helpless idiot.  You finally snap out of it when you see him crying and you lean over to wake him up. At first you just place a tentative hand on his shoulder, but when Karkat flinches away from it in his sleep you know that you’re going to have to try a little harder to wake him up.  Grimacing, you grab his shoulder and shake him just a little bit, hoping that’s all it takes.

Lucky for you he seems to wake up, but he’s startled and panicking.  He’s not screaming, but he’s breathing really fast and letting out these high-pitched whines and he’s crying still.  You hate the terrified, far-off stare on his face because it looks so wrong on him, suddenly you feel an awful tightness in you chest and the only thing you can think of is how to make Karkat stop crying.

“Karkat” you whisper.  He whips his head in your direction, shrinking away slightly.  In any other circumstance it would have been a little funny but now you just want him to feel better.  “Karkat hey, it’s just me.”

Karkat is still crying but he’s not breathing fast, so it looks like he’s starting to calm down.  Still, you know that he’s not all there and he’s still freaking out a little so you’re not done yet.  You reach out a hand and he flinches away, his arms covering his chest and face defensively.

“Karkat, you’re alright man” you say softly.  “It was just a dream.”

Again, you reach out and touch his shoulder.  He doesn’t flinch this time, he just looks around with those wide, scared eyes.  Not knowing what else to do you move your hand up to curl around the back of his neck, trying to make him focus.

“Karkat, hey, look at me.”

He does, and in a split second your eyes lock with his.  Suddenly, you’re at a loss for what to do and you’re caught up in seeing Karkat’s expression clarify somewhat.

“Dave?” he whispers, tears still prickling at the corners of his eyes.  Karkat looks lost and freaked out, and you don’t know why it hurts you so much to see him like that.

“C’mere” you mumble before pulling him gently towards you.

Karkat doesn’t resist.  In fact, he clutches your shirt in a vice grip with both hands and pulls himself into your chest.  The waterworks start again and all you can do is let him cry it out. You curse yourself for being powerless to do anything else as you feel every muted sob that racks through his body.  Without thinking you curl your arms around him, moving one hand up to gently thread your fingers into his hair. He only responds by pressing himself into you more.

For a while you stay like this as his crying subsides and he eases back into sleep.  You realize that the position you’re in isn’t the most comfortable: his horns press into the top of your throat and the wet spots from his tears grow cold, but you don’t dare to move.  You’re just glad that Karkat isn’t crying anymore, and you’re thinking that he must have had one hell of a nightmare for him to completely lose his cool like that. Knowing that you’re not going to sleep you prepare yourself for a long rest of the night and turn your attention back to the movies you queued up earlier, leaving Karkat to use you as the worst possible pillow.

You ignore the part of yourself that wouldn’t mind doing this forever: for now, you can’t let yourself think of the implications of that.

* * *

 

Your name is KARKAT VANTAS, and you’re not used to feeling this warm when you wake up.

Usually when you begin to return to consciousness you’re freezing cold, but now right now you’re pressed against something warm and you have no idea what it is.  You don’t complain because it feels nice, but it is a little alarming.

You wake up a little more because whatever is playing on your husktop is loud and annoying as hell.  Then, you realize that whatever you’re lying on is rising and falling slowly. That’s when your dumbass self realizes that you’re lying _on_ someone, that they have their arms around you, and that one of their hands is resting on your head.  You know that the only person that this could be is Dave and your mind is suddenly flooded with questions and, strangely enough, a feeling you can’t place.  You open your eyes and look around, seeing that Dave was still awake watching movies on your husktop. How long has it been since you fell asleep? And how the hell did you end up practically on top of him?

“Dave?” you say tentatively.

“Oh, hey Karkat” he says, jumping a little bit.  “I didn’t realize you were awake.”

“I just woke up” you say.  “How did we uh…end up like this?”

“Shit, uh– sorry” he said, starting to move away.

“No!  Don’t!”

He freezes.

“Just– stay like this” you mutter.  “Please.”

Wordlessly, he lets his arms fall back to where they were and you both sit there in tense silence for what seems like forever, with whatever shitty movie Dave chose playing in the background.

You finally break the silence by once again asking “so, how did we end up like this?”

At first he hesitates, but he knows that things probably can’t get any more awkward than they already are, so he spits it out.  “You had some kind of nightmare and you were freaking out. Once you calmed down a little you just– I don’t know. You wanted some comfort or something so you just came over to me.”  You don’t respond, prompting him to continue. “Do you not remember?”

“No, but the fact that it happened doesn’t really surprise me” you say.  “It’s been happening since…well…”

Dave just nods, knowing full well what you’re talking about.

“Usually I end up snapping out of it by myself, but I just…I don’t know.  I should be over it by now but it still bothers me and sometimes I can’t stop thinking about it.  Sorry you had to do that for me.”

“It’s no big deal dude” he replies.  “And don’t beat yourself up for not being over it.  That shit was probably traumatic as hell, it’s okay to still be messed up about it.”

You scoff.  “Clearly you’ve learned nothing about troll culture from the movies we’ve watched.  Our whole lives are dominated by violence and bloodshed, I should be able to move on from it but– whatever, it’s not important.  Thank you.”

“Yeah man, no problem.”

Again, you both just sit there and say nothing, but you’re really enjoying the feeling of Dave’s arms around you and feeling his chest rise and fall with every breath.  You don’t know how to feel about the shit that you’re thinking of but you don’t exactly want to dig into it too much.

“Do you need to move?” he asks.

“No, do you?”

“No, I’m kind of liking this” Dave says sheepishly.

“Yeah, I am too.”  You feel him relax a little when you say that.

You turn your attention back to the husktop to avoid any more awkward conversation and to repress whatever it is you’re feeling.  It’s Con Air, you’ve seen it before and you enjoyed it, despite telling Dave that it was hot garbage. Dave doesn’t say anything either, seeming to follow suit in watching the movie.

You both know that you’re going to have to talk about whatever this is later on, but for now you just enjoy each other’s company.


End file.
